Can't Fight This Feeling
by MonyMony
Summary: This story takes place after the kiss James gave Katie in his office when they fought over her situation with Oliver. The story focuses on their relationship but still integrates other characters on the show. I own none of the characters of Big Shots.


James enters one of the Firmwood dining rooms with the guys following right behind him. They walk through and select from the wonderful lunch that the country club offered as one of the benefits to the club members. Currently their minds were on the food. All except for James whose mine was laced with thoughts of Katie. It had been 3 days since he had seen or talked to her since he kissed her in his office. He sure did put a dent in things for her to miss work. Katie never missed work unless for vacation or a doctor's appointment. And outside of the weekends or being out of town, there was not a time that James didn't talk to Katie just about every day. After looking over his plate, he realized that he wasn't even aware that he had loaded it with food. Realizing he had just enough, James heads over to an available table not realizing that he had been addressed by Karl.

Karl waves his hand in front of James face as the reach the table, "Hey, you alright?"

"Yeah, why?" James asks not realizing that Karl had previously asked him a question. 

"You seem a bit distracted," Karl says taking a seat. 

James takes a seat and puts his plate on the table. "Well as you guys know I kissed Katie right?"

"Yeah," they all reply in unison while taking their seats and putting down their plates.

James makes a face, "Well now suddenly, _she's sick_."

"You gave Katie Mono?" Brody whispers with a curious face while he shakes out his napkin.

"What? No, of course I didn't give her Mono," James replies disgruntled while he looks around to see if anyone is paying attention.

"Well you are with Alex and she seems to have no problem _getting around_. I'm sure she'd have no problem kissing just about anyone. For an interview of course," Brody teases then takes a bite of his asparagus.

"Hey that happens to be the woman I'm dating," James says faking offense.

Duncan questions with a raised brow as he places his napkin on his lap, "So a few days ago she was your _girlfriend_, and now after kissing Katie, you're back to _dating_ her, huh?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" James replies with a scoff.

"How about we let Sherlock figure that one out on his own," Karl interjects with a laugh.

"No you guys I want to know what you're talking about," James demands.

"It's the subtle pulling away from Alex that's about to begin," Duncan informs him.

"What? Look I'm not going to start pulling away from Alex. Alex and I are fine. I had to smooth some things out after our dinner the other night with Katie and Oliver but we're good. My problem right now is Katie pulling away from me. She's avoiding me by calling in saying that she's sick. Katie hasn't been sick a day since I've known her. She's hiding because she doesn't want to deal with me or our situation right now," James explains to his friends as he puts his napkin down on his lap and then picks up his fork.

"And are you ready to deal with Katie and your situation?" Duncan asks in a serious tone.

James puts back down his fork, breaths out a sigh, and gives them the breakdown of his situation, "You know what? Actually I have dealt with this situation with me and Katie. There is no situation. Look, I kissed her impulsively and I don't know exactly why. She was there and I just couldn't help but grab her and kiss her. But she's one of my best friends and I can't afford to lose her due to complications of a kiss I gave her on a whim. She's too important to me to confuse a kiss with anything more," 

Brody questions, "And you're sure there's nothing more?" James looks over to Brody. "I mean this is Katie we're talking about here. She's not just anybody. So yeah sure, she's one of your best friends but she's also one of the most amazing women you'll ever meet _in your life_. Hell, that any of us will ever meet. She's beautiful, smart, she's sexy, utterly devoted to you. You two have a connection that runs pretty deep. So maybe it's easy for you to say that you can put the kiss aside as an impulse but don't get upset if we find it a bit harder to buy than that."

"Look I know what you're getting at. I think Katie is amazing in so many ways. But for all the reasons I think she's amazing is exactly why I _have_ to just put that kiss aside as an impulse. I can't risk losing Katie. You know when I married Stacey I thought we'd be together forever," James sits for a moment and contemplates. "I mean, when you get married, you expect it will last. But somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew there was a chance it could end. I mean, it's marriage right? But Katie's one of my best friend and most times, you can always keep that relationship through whatever happens. I mean look at how long we've stuck together. I never worry about losing you guys because I know you'll always be here for me."

"So never any impulses to give me a big sloppy wet one," Duncan teases while the other men laugh.

"I'm not a big fan of 5 o'clock shadow so no," James ribs back. "Look, losing Stacey was hard enough but the thought of losing Katie is a completely different ball game. I _can't_ lose Katie in my life," James sighs, "so that kiss is going nowhere."

CAN'T

"Well, that's understandable," Karl says agreeably while he cuts into his chicken breast.

James checks his watch and sees he needs to get back to work. He then looks at his plate and realizes he hadn't touched a thing, "What a waste. Look, I've gotta get back. I have a important conference call this afternoon that I have to finish preparing for. So I'll see you guys later."

"See ya," Brody says as he takes a bite of his garlic roasted potatoes and all the men watch James as he exits out of the dining room door.

"He's in for some real trouble isn't he?" Karl asks.

"Oh hell yeah," Duncan scoffs.

"Definitely," Brody says shaking his head. "Poor delusional bastard. Hey pass the salt?"

Back at Amerimart, James sits at his desk trying to make sure he has everything together for this conference call. Due to busy schedules and travel, it took over a month to get this conference call setup so it's important that everything goes perfectly for it. James couldn't deny he wished Katie was in the office. His nerves were shot and she could always calm him down. Only thing is, Katie was the reason he was on edge and he knew it. He had wanted to call her every day since he kissed her but he wanted to give her space from him and even dealing with her situation with Oliver. He tried to get back to the current task at hand and get Katie off his mind. While looking through his notes of things he wanted to push to the potential client, there is a knock at the door.

"Come in," James yells out softly.

An attractive young redhead by the name of Kimberly walked through the doors, "Good afternoon Mr. Walker."

"Yes Kimberly, how can I help you?" James says as he looks back down at his notes.

"I wanted you to quickly look over this proposal and make sure it's okay to send to Legal so they can write up a contract," Kimberly said as she stands next to James and hands him over the file.

James takes the file and starts looking it over with a furrowed brow. "This…this is the Chase Reynolds Project. Katie's project. How'd you get this?" James asks looking up at her inquisitively.

"Well Katie has had me taking care of some things for her for the last few days while she's been out sick. She said she didn't want to lose any time on it while she was out because she says they're an important client. She's actually been a very busy bee," Kimberly says clearly impressed.

"Oh has she?" James questions looking at Kimberly then back at the file.

"You know, I feel bad knowing how sick she is and doing all this work. You're very lucky to have someone like Katie, Mr Walker." Kimberly realizing how that sounded quickly clarifies, "As an employee I mean."

This makes James look up at Kimberly. "Yeah, she's a trooper isn't she?" Kimberly doesn't note the sarcasm in James' voice. James then looks back down at the file for further inspection. Everything looked to be in order. "It looks great. Why don't you go ahead and get that down to Legal asap."

Kimberly takes the file from James, "Will do Mr. Walker. I'll let Katie know it's all taken care of. Have a nice weekend sir."

"You too, Kim," James said still distracted. Katie being out _sick_ clearly hadn't affected her ability to work. He was more upset at her continuing to work from home than just pretending to be sick to not have to deal with him. He and Katie never had any problems communicating with each other. But James had never taken it upon himself to kiss Katie either. And getting into over Oliver being married didn't help matters. James thought that the situation was something that he wasn't going to have to address and it would fix itself. But this was beyond ridiculous and James couldn't take it anymore. Something had to be done and it had to be done now. James pushes the speakerphone button and calls his secretary Susan. 

"Yes Mr. Walker?" Susan says as she picks up her phone.

"Susan, look I'm gonna need for you to call Mr. Preston and cancel the conference call," James says knowing Susan has to be thrown for a loop over this.

Amanda treads cautiously, "But Mr. Walker, it's just under an hour away." 

"Look I know, I know. But there's something important I have to take care of and it can't wait. Just get whatever times he has available and check them against my schedule and whatever works for him, I'll do. There's probably a couple of appointments of mine that you can move around if need be. And give him my apologies," James says as he rises from his chair starting to shut down his computer.

"Yes Mr. Walker," Susan replies.

"Oh, and call my ex wife and let her know that I have something I have to take care of so I won't be available for calls. I'll be checking in with my answering service later and she can leave a message for me there if something comes up. Also, let me know when you reschedule with Preston and leave that information with my answering service," James says placing his laptop down into his briefcase.

"I'll take care of all of it Mr. Walker. Don't worry. Have a good weekend sir," Susan says.

"You too Susan and thanks," James says ending his call and finishing collecting his things to leave. He knows after all that it took to get that conference call scheduled that it was probably not the best idea to cancel it. The board will be expected an update about that conference all on Monday and he'd have to deal with that. But the truth was, James mind was just not in the right place to do the conference call. Katie had been thick on his mind for the last few days. James surveys over his desk to make sure he's got everything before heading out. With his mind on heading to Katie's, he heads towards the door, "Here goes nothing."


End file.
